Pop R&B singer Rihanna sued her ex-accountants for tens of millions of dollars that never made it in her pockets. The lawsuit was filed Thursday (July 5) in federal court in Manhattan seeking unspecified damages against New York-based Berdon LLP and two accountants… Rihanna is suing them for failure to recommend she trim expenses when a 2009 tour was losing money, stealing and an ongoing audit by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
According to Huffington Post, By the “Last Girl on Earth” tour in 2009, Rihanna learned that the tour had managed “significant net losses” despite robust revenues, though the defendants (ex-accountants) had managed to pocket 22 percent of the tour’s total revenues while paying Rihanna just 6 percent of revenues, the lawsuit said. It said Berdon’s unusual accounting practice of paying itself a percentage of gross tour income as commissions left it no incentive to “counsel” Rihanna to reduce expenses or put in place appropriate financial controls.
The lawsuit alleged that the practice of paying itself commissions on revenues was not standard in the accounting and business management industry and created a clear conflict of interest.
